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Friday, August 23, 2013

Winning The League In Another Country, Part Two

For lots of
different reasons a soccer club can seek refuge outside their own country. In this article Vancouver Whitecaps was in a way an American franchise
in Canada, while the sporting life in Northern –Ireland was made impossible for
Derry City. And Perth Kangaroos were disregarded in Australia and set their eyes on Singapore, while the Singaporean youth team LionsXII
took up an invitation from Malaysia.

Vancouver
Whitecaps (Canada) champions of the USA, 1979

In 1979 the
North American Soccer League (NASL) was packed with big soccer stars, although
most of them were past their prime. For this season Franz Beckenbauer, George
Best and Carlos Alberto got company from stars like Johan Cruyff, Johan
Neeskens, Gerd Müller, Francisco Marinho, Björn Nordquist and Teofilo Cubillas.
North of the border in Vancouver, the big names were not that big. The
Whitecaps had a mixture of Canadian and English players, with good old Alan
Ball (world champion in 1966), Trevor Whymark and Kevin Hector as their main
assets. Behind regular goalkeeper Phil Parkes, a unknown Bruce Grobbelaar just
managed to play in one match.

During the
season Vancouver first won the Western Division of the National Conference
ahead of Los Angeles Aztecs, and easily qualified for the play-offs. In which they
first beat Dallas Tornados 3-2 and 1-0. After that, they needed a mini-game (30
minutes of extra play, starting with 0-0) and a Kevin Hector-goal to beat the Los Angeles Aztecs in the quarterfinals. Then they clashed with big favorite New York Cosmos in a nerve wracking
semi-final. Both teams won their home-match: Vancouver 2-0, goals by Trevor
Whymark, and Willy Johnston. Cosmos won 3-2, with Cosmos-goals from Giorgio
Chinaglia (2), and Vancouver-goals from John Craven and again Johnston bringing
it to another shoot-out, which Cosmos won. So another mini-game was needed, and
after that another shoot-out. At the end, Cosmos-player Nelsi Morais was beaten
by the clock – it took him longer than five seconds to score – and Vancouver
were in the final, in New York.

Trevor Whymark during the final against Tampa Bay

Trevor
Whymark scored both goals in a 2-1 win against Tampa Bay Rowdies. This made
Vancouver Whitecaps the only Canadian team ever to win the NASL. Alan Ball was
voted the play-offs MVP, Phil Parkes was
best goalkeeper of the year and the only Whitecap selected for the All Star
Team – with New York Cosmos providing no less than five players.

Vancouver
didn’t mind, as more than 150,000 fans – the largest public demonstration in
Vancouver history – gave the team a warm welcome as they arrived back home from the USA.

Derry City
(N-Ireland), champions in the Irish Republic, 1988-89

Derry City
were a big (catholic) club in Northern Ireland, especially back in the fifties
and sixties, winning the league in 1964-65. In 1972, with tension rising
between catholics and protestants, some clubs refused to play in (London)derry and as a result Derry City was expelled from the league. Thirteen years later, the club was
elected to the newly formed second division in the Irish Republic. With the
help of league top goalscorer (18 goals) Yugoslav Alex Krstic, South African
Owen Da Gama (10 goals) and 35-year old Alan Sunderland (ex-Arsenal), Derry
City won promotion to the First Division in 1987.

Two years
later they were crowned champions of the Republic of Ireland. The players
mentioned above were all gone, Derry City had a young team with mostly 22,
23-year old players. They also had money to spent, and they made an excellent
choice in the summer of 1988 with the Shamrock Rovers-duo Paul Doolin and Mick
Neville.

Felix Healy

The
all-important match was a 2-0 victory over biggest rival Dundalk (goals by Liam
Coyle and Jonathan Speak). Coyle was perhaps the most talented Derry-player, who
was still among the Derry City ranks fifteen years later. Together with Paul Curran and Paul Hegarty from the 1989 team, Coyle won a second championship with Derry in 1997. Club topscorer of the 1988-89 season was Jonathan (Johnny) Speak, who scored 12 league-goals, only half of his total from the season before. Experience that year came from two oldies, Noel Larkin and Felix Healy. Both 34 years old and big
names in the Republic (Larkin) and Northern Ireland (Healy).

Derry did not
only win the league that season, they
also won the League of Ireland Cup (4-0 against Dundalk) and the F.A.I. Cup. In
the final they beat Cork City 1-0 (goal scored by Healy) in what was Noel
Larkins last match before immigrating to Australia.

Perth
Kangaroos (Australia), champions of Singapore, 1994

Scene from Perth Kangaroos - Geylang (4-1)

Soccer in the
Australia Soccer League (starting in 1977) was dominated by clubs from Sydney
and Melbourne. Perth, situated on the other side of Australia (the west coast),
was denied access to the league for several years. While looking at the enormous
distance between Perth and those two cities, that seems nearly logical. From a
sporting viewpoint, it was a pity. Disappointed people in West Australia sought
first class soccer elsewhere, and found it in Singapore. After some hassle
about finding enough players for the team that was called Perth Kangaroos, they
entered the league. From the city of Darwin, another Australian club, Darwin
Cubs, did the same.

It soon became clear that Perth Kangaroos was in a league
of their own in Singapore. Not surprisingly, as the best clubs and players in Singapore
were competing in the Malaysian league. Perth Kangaroos won their first sixteen
matches in a row and were already champions when Singapore Air Force SA managed
a 1-1 draw. Exactly two months earlier the Air Force team had suffered a
humiliating 10-1 defeat against the Australians. For Jurong FC it got even
worse, losing 11-0. In all, Perth Kangaroos scored 75 goals in 18 matches, with
Paul Strudwick (16) and Gary Lees (15) topping the scoring charts. Gareth Naven
was voted best player.

Financially this adventure was a catastrophy for the club. As Perth Kangaroos was winning the league effortlessly, attendances experienced a dramatic drop. And although the club signed
a three year contract, the Kangaroos withdrew from the league after one year.
Darwin Cub, who finished second in 1994, stayed for another season, but eventually
quit the league before the end of that 1995 season.

Perth
finally made its debut in the Australian Soccer league in 1997, as Perth Glory.
Quite a few players (Vladimir Beretovac, Vince Matassa, McVittie, Gareth Naven
and his twin brother Craig, Strudwick, Dale Wingell) from this Asian enterprise continued to play for Glory, with Scott Miller even earning two caps for
Australia. Perth Glory became Australian champions in 2003 and 2004.

LionsXII
(Singapore), champions of Malaysia, 2013

While
Singapore FA won the Malaysian league back in 1985 and 1994, it was not a regular
club team. The league at that time consisted only of representative teams from
regional football associations. So I skipped that, although certainly the
team in 1994 (with star strikers Abbas Saad and Singapore’s
best ever player Fandi Ahmed) was legendary. It is only since 2002 that clubs from
Singapore play in the Malaysian league, but didn't win it, until one month ago this season. In their second year LionsXII finished on top, just ahead of Selangor. To be precise, LionsXII also isn’t a real club team, but it is
presented as such. In fact, its the Singaporean national Under-23 selection.

The main
goal for LionsXII this season was finishing in the top five, and preparing for the 2013
Southeast Asian Games. They were allowed to include four overage players,
to give this Under-23 team some experience on the field. Three of them, Shahril Ishak, Isa Halim
and Baihakki Khaizan did a tremendous job. Especially 29-year old captain
Shahril Ishak was great. His skills are wellknown in this part of Asia, as he was voted ASEAN Footballer of the Year in 2012.

Furthermore,
the team was tactically very strong and had a great defense, led by goalkeeper
Izwan Mahmud, Safuwan Bahruddin and towering defender Baihakki Khaizan, conceiding
only fifteen goals. Upfront, Shahril Ishak (8), Shaifq Ghani (5) and Baihakki
Khaizan (5) also did quite well. But they were no match for league top goalscorer, Marlon James from St. Vincent, who scored 16 for his team ATM.

While other
teams spent lots of money on big stars who not always lived up to expectations,
LionsXII’s coach V. Sundramoorthy concentrated on teambuilding. No one in his
club got overpaid. Of course the famous Singapore striker from the nineties was
voted Coach of the Year for his attribution.